Synchronizing E-forms and IS Document Types

Designing and Implementing Business Process Models : Implementing E-form Support for BPM : Synchronizing E-forms : Synchronizing E-forms and IS Document Types

Because e-form templates are converted into IS document types, you must be aware that any modification to either the e-form template or to the IS document type will result in mis-matched (or out of sync) documents.

After an e-form is imported and an IS document type is created from it, any modifications to the content or structure of the IS document type will cause it to be out of sync with the e-form template from which it was created. When an instance of the e-form template is received, it will no longer match the IS document type, and therefore will be unusable by the Process Engine.

The same situation will occur if you change the e-form template, and instances arrive in the repository from the modified e-form. The instances will no longer match the IS document type created from the initial template.

In both cases, you must:

1. Delete the existing IS document type.

Note:

The renaming action required in the following step is necessary only if the IS document type and its associated schema are used in more than one place. The file name of the e-form template is used to set the schema domain for the associated schema, and a unique file name will yield a unique schema domain. Integration Server maintains a central schema registry, so if a schema for a particular document type is used anywhere in the Integration Server, that definition will take precedence in all locations, regardless of subsequent imports. The only way to get the new definition to take precedence is to rename the imported e-form template, or to ensure that the old one is completely deleted from the Integration Server. Finding the old schema definition may not be easy because the original schema may be used in another package or folder.

2. Change the name of the e-form template you have modified; for example, if you have modified an e-form template named my_template.xdp, add a revision number, such as my_template_r1.xdp.

3. Use the New Document Type wizard to recreate the IS document type from the latest version of the e-form template.

If there are changes to the IS document type that will affect your process model (such as data structure changes), additional procedures are required, as follows:

Note:

Changes to field attributes in the e-form template do not require the following actions.

You must:

Delete the existing process model receive step that uses the IS document type.

Drag the recreated IS document type to the process canvas to create a new receive step in process model and configure the step accordingly.

Map fields from the receive step to the pipeline as needed.

Build and upload the process model.

For more information about working with IS document types, see the webMethods Service Development Help.

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